Word Origin & History

1862, "having a delusive appearance of high quality," a Northern word from the American Civil War in reference to the quality of government supplies for the armies, from earlier noun meaning "rag-wool, wool made of woolen waste and old rags" (1832), perhaps a Yorkshire provincial word, of uncertain origin.

Originally used for padding, English manufacturers began making coarse wearing clothes from it, and when new it looked like broad-cloth but the gloss quickly wore off, giving the stuff a bad reputation as a cheat. The 1860 U.S. census of manufactures notes import of more than 6 million pounds of it, which was "much used in the manufacture of army and navy cloths and blankets in the United States" according to an 1865 government report.

Related: Shoddily; shoddiness.

Example Sentences forshoddy

Most of the novels and non-scholastic books were of a shoddy, sensational type.

You can tell at a glance that it is shoddy and quite unfit for wearing.

Well, if this stuff is flocks, how is shoddy made, and what does it look like?

Once a year there was a distribution of cheap blankets and shoddy clothing.

When you agree to clothe the body,Expand your soul and flee from shoddy.

And he took the shoddy reproof and touched it into immortality.

A shambling, shoddy crew, this crowd of shoppers and labor demonstrators!

That Eton captain is cut out of whole cloth; no shoddy there, by Jove!

I may state, in passing, that it was during the Civil War that the word "shoddy" was coined.